Wednesday, March 07, 2012

After Syed Zainal, Proton to re-badge again?

Since DRB-HICOM’s emergence in Proton, some of VW’s top group directors have visited the Proton plant, as well as reviewed all the existing Proton models. Following the review and a meeting in Hong Kong last month between Soh Wei Ming (VW head for the Pacific) and DRB-HICOM’s chief operating officer, Datuk Lukman Ibrahim, it was decided that the Polo would be the best fit for Proton. - Volkswagen's grand vision for Proton, BT 5-3-2012

DRB's Proton to re-badge Polo, says who? The series of articles in the papers on Proton and VW would have been exciting news, ordinarily. But at a time when DRB-Hicom has just taken over the national car [DRB's bosses are due to take over the Board of Proton this March 21], the news is odd. Worrying, in fact.

What happens to "no more re-badging", Luqman? The Polo is a great, small car. But if we want the national car to go back to rebadging cars (or if we wanted VW to run the show), we didn't need a bloody corporate takeover to do that. The people at DRB-Hicom had been preaching against rebadging - it was a major point they were making to back their bid for Proton - but here we have news that Luqman, who's tipped to replace Syed Zainal as CEO of Proton, okaying a proposed rebadging.

If DRB and Luqman do not deny or clarify the news about rebadging the VW immediately, I am taking it that they are going back on their words!

Proton's heartache. In a related development, Syed Zainal is said to be getting his marching orders before the end of the month. You can imagine how unhappy the Proton employees and unions are about this. Many felt that since April is the launch of the new Proton model, described by Dr Mahathir as the best Proton car ever (and not rebadged), Syed Zainal should be allowed at least the honour of holding the ribbons while the Prime Minister cuts them.

DRB's headache. Morale is low at Proton, I guess I don't have to tell anyone that. In any corporate takeover, the CEO, COO and CFO or the party that is being taken over will have to go. Syed Mokhtar's DRB will be putting its own people to head the national car. But DRB has its own problems in terms of personnel as it has lost quite a few very good people in the last few months due to internal politics. Last month, DRB's most seasoned auto man walked out of the group. People in Proton are hoping DRB's internal politics will stay at DRB and not come to Proton. I hope we don't end up with a Proton that's run by VW people! What Syed Mokthtar needs is a head who knows how to rev up the morale of the Proton citizens.

For many years, Proton was run by the Mitsubishi people, Japs who gave the orders for everything. That was ok, was it, beause it was Maha Firaun who had it Ali Bab'd? guess how much, how many $ billions in management fees disappeared abroad from Malaysia?

Guess who designed and constucted Petronas Twin Towers and who are the actual contractors who perform work for Kencana on Petronas contracts, and who did all the contract work for Monorail and MRT (canadian company) for Scomi?

rocky,first and foremost - proton is no longer the 'national' car! it has gone private. khazanah already made its money (for the govt!) now it is syed mokhtar's headache. don't get the same disease most malaysian do like when tajudin took over mas. they have to make their money the way they see fit. no more interference from politicians or know-it-all pundits please!

Personally, I increasingly feel that it is time for Proton to come to grips to the rigorous demands of market forces and either reinvent itself to the realities of the marketplace or simply perish.

Rebadging or releasing outlandish new models sans proper QCs, contemporary styling or fuel efficiency aint gonna save Proton's butt. A National Automative Policy is an imperative that will witness the emergence of a level playing field where the innovative and the efficient thrive and the stragglers perish. This is not the time for sentimentality or misplaced maruahism but rather a moment in time when Proton either has to rise to the challenge or die in the heat of competition. No two ways about it.

A NAP will mean cheaper cars, put meaning into any gain in wages and sound the death knoll for the uncompetitive that bleed our national coffers. Proton's predicament is echoed n the SME scene where 80% will reportedly (in the SUN today)perish if the minimum wage policy is introduced. Sounds like the exploitative arsefucking, cockslurping Chingkie (who dominate the SME scene)twatlicks are quavering in fear given that they too have not emphasized efficiency and productivity by leveraging upon the many incentives the government has provided but rather profited from exploitative wage structures and inequitable tariff frameworks to line their pockets, the bastards! Now they are holding everyone to ransom as usual. I say quid pro quo; no more protective assistance for Proton and no more molly coddling of the fuckedup Chingkie SMEs. Let the market decide in both cases and watch whether these hitherto mollycoddled saplings can either withstand the heat of the market or wither in the furnace of competition.

Wow, Malaysia betul2 boleh. The gomen asked Honda if they could rebadge the 2.0 Accord in order to give these cars to replace the aging Perdana. Honda told the gomen to get lost. The gomen then asked Nissan for the same thing, and I think Nissan is still considering.

What's with this country ? Like the Chinese used to say "pakai kulit bontot orang lain untuk jadi kulit muka kita". Really smooth.

Glad to see you back, even if we have had our vitriolic differences in the past (and will, no doubt, continue to have them in the future...)

I agree with most of your views, but note that you have not touched on the subject of APs.

In an enlightened NAP, can there be any place for APs?

More so in the free trade agreement scheme of things (like this TPP agreement that Malaysia is negotiating with 8 other countries), do you think it will be allowed to get away with a continuation of the AP system?

I get your point about Chinese SMEs and the proposed minimum wage system.

But whose fault is it that the SME sector, the service sector, the plantation sector and the construction sector got "addicted" to the seemingly endless supply of cheap foreign labour, with a corresponding disregard of the need to increase productivity before real wages can increase?

The government, that's who.

And the MTUC is equally culpable because they have done freaking-all to emphasise the need for skills upgrading, continuous retraining of workers and productivity increases!

When Big Dog remarked that DRB might bring in new technology into Proton, I commented in his blog. And I said "what technology? ... Assembly technology ...?"And I ended by saying,..." This DRB Hicom mgmt team ... They are weird bunch."Perhaps rebadging Polo will bring in more money that developing new car. But then, Luqman doesn't need Proton to do that. Just copy NAZA.

You have to be PASSIONATE in developing engines/cars. You have to trust your people while guiding them with encouragement. But with DRB people at the top.. Pray hard. The PASSION will turn into Patients. Then, what will happen to Proton ?

WTF close all 'the exploitative arsefucking, cockslurping Chingkie (who dominate the SME scene)twatlicks'. Let me try to match your racist obscenities. The Mamats can become pondans bending over for assfucks and slurping Chingkie cocks. After all the Malays are aleady 'Tuans' of the 'mau main belakang Bang' trade. As for the women the Chingkies sure love the hot Minahs with their hot chilli padi twats who will allow assfuckings if the price is right. If you find what I have said racist and offensive then stop being the 'Ketuanan' hero.

The story of Proton is a series of management misteps and poor strategy.Proton started around the same time in auto manufacturing as Kia and Hyundai. Instead of following their lead in thinking global and quality from day one - Proton decided to be a 'jaguh kampung', happy to make profits in their home market under massive government protection, and because of that they did not care about innovation, quality and originality.They had their chances to strike alliances to make them a competietive player but were too damn lazy.The fact is when Malaysian incomes rise - we don't aspire to buy Proton but to buy Japanese, Korean or German. Thus the long term future of Proton is not too bright....

Donplayfuks...what's your beef here? I see you commenting about BN & Umno leaders all the time. Why don't you play somewhere else, this is not your hunting ground. Take your stupid 1race human race slogan to PR bloggers.

Raised your heckles dint I when I touched your favie Chingkie unwashed arses and uncircumcised smegmaed filthy cocks and their sluts' wormy twats. I reckon as long as I was upbraiding Proton everything was hunky dory with a Chingkie suttunakara(arselicking) pundek mairu like you but the moment I went after the filthy Chingkie exploitative racist bastards with my TRUTH bazooka you went ballistic,, eh kuthian? Now who"s racist here, Fuckarse?

If licking shitstained Chingkie arse and suckling their pigcocks are the only means of giving your insignificant and inconsequential chakkiliyan pariah existence a semblance of respectability, by all means carry on, thaioli pepundek . And your insider knowledge of the backside business, speaks volumes of your income source and livelihood, shameless pariah dog. Bet your filthy arsehole must have ben sold many times over to them Chingkie arsecocking fiends to shred at their whim and fancy while your Malay Tuan rakes in the moolah hahahaha...what a typical suttu kuli parian boy u must be just like your estate forefathers!

And about them Minahs, for all their beastly ways, the Chingks must still have an iota of good taste and sense to frolic with our undoubtedly world class Minahs twats rather than poking around in the dark with a charcoal black, hairy unwashed thanggachi's cunt hidden somewhere beneath them folds of fat while she puffs and sweats under the burden of her wiggly sagging tits. Now go and check out your amma's filthy,blasted cunthole and give her a nice fuck before sticking your ccok up her arse and gagging her to death with your stumpy cock via a gobfuck. That's the least a Chingkie johnjuicer can do to repay that bitch for birthing a dicklicking shithead of a moron like you,road porikee. Tiuniamah, kanina chouchibai of a wasted sperm.

Skill moron pigheaded

Nice of you to agree with my points. See Vinnan the vinnaponae(useless) pundek, even a Chingkie pig is alright with me labeling his race with such pejorative appellations so why are u screaming your arsehole off like a keling karam, hankering for a Chingkie cock up ur arse or down ur throat, are you?that desperatekah?

Dei skill moron, I said level playing field so the AP taunt is a non-issue, stupid fellatist. And don't sideswipe the SME issue with grandma tales. Those Chingkie bastards sponged the system dry, no two ways about it, twathead. Now, either the bastards toe the line or have their businesses and wealth expropriated and they be cast in leaking boats out into the South China Sea. Let's see whether they have the cockmuscles to survive the journey home.

From the beginning, PROTON itself is its own enemy. We have seen back in the 90s how overcapacity, fierce competition, customers’ preference have changed in the automotive industry that the 2000s, mergers and acquisitions and alliances were the norm BUT of course … NOT PROTON.

Looking at the financial statements we know now that even protectionism will not be helping PROTON in any way due to higher household debts, volatile consumer confidence index, increasing cost of raw materials, increasing fuel demand coupled with lower fuel output, and on top of that, the administration expenses of PROTON is mysteriously ding-dong-ding-dong due to restructuring and all.

Now, if I was PROTON, the reality is that having the economies of scale is nature and is something I have to accept rather going against own nature. Thus, I would go having alliances as it won’t take long (say Year 2015), PROTON WILL experience PERMANENT RED. Protectionism or no protectionism ... does not matter anymore.

PROTON is the national pride. I doubt not and Malaysia is the only developing country in this very world having own truly car manufacturer BUT without alliances … never mind … enough said. If I was the engineer, surely I would love to learn that VW Polo technologies.

But that was achieved via a visonary masterplan that leveraged upon both foreign tech and protective trade barriers to push the fledgling indigenous auto industry forward.Sure for a time consumers were the casualties but in the long run things evened out.

That timeline is about the same timeframe with regard to Proton's existence. Yet we have not seen a single Proton model break into US mart, the frontier of automobiles. Now China is the biggest market and yet no strategic plan has been designed to get in there as well especially since the filthy chingkies have lower benchmarks for safety and emissions.

What Proton should have done is to develop the requisite technological nous behind those protective barriers and unleash them just at the right time like the Koreans did.Remember too Proton frittered away an inherent advantage of access to more cntemporary tech since it came in late in the auto-manufacturing Kondratiev. The fact that there was no organised plan for such targets bespeaks how much Proton sought refuge and smug comfort behind those protective walls which inevitably comes crashing down sooner or later.

Have we missed the boat then? Maybe but who knows if

a. we give Proton a three year deadline to retool and reinvent top-down in all areas of production before all protectionism is removed

b. we streamline the national auto industry by merging Proton and Perodua thus yielding a product line for every niche and reaping economies of scae in return and after that seek a foreign partner to tap external marts, imbibe new tech etc (the Nissan-Renault merge is a good case model of synergy).

But whatever the future holds,I still aver that a more equitable and trade barrier free NAP is an industry imperative going forward for protective constitute an added drag or dampener on local private consumption which happens to be one of the key drivers of the economy.

Warrior 231

p.s: Could all Dravidia Pundek Pudukus shut the fuck up if they cant say anything pithy. This blog has already enough Chingkie arsefucking sluttwat lickers to do that,tq.

i said 'level playing field' abd that by itself implies the obvious which to ur pigfarmhand brain is pretty vague.

Ok I will go pretty slow: level playing field=no tariff protection, no other advantages such as APs, get it.

Thanks anyway for finally supporting my pejorative namecalling of your filthy race.Seems you have wised up to reality. For once, good for you..but once in a blue moon is a poor record. Try improving further by letting your brains sniff some fresh air for a change, fuckarse of a twatlicker.

Vinnan? LMFAO, that chakkiliyan pundek kalathai cant take it, he just scooted up his mother's cunt. Anyway, dont disturb him as he gives the drycunted old bitch her deserved and yearned for obligatory arse and gob fucksLOL

Syed Zainal maybe passionate abt proton but just ask anyone in the organization he lacks the boldness and deciciveness as a leader 2 far too long he lets the bod wastes proton money ie no other car coapany gives free car free petrol free toll to the bod everybody knows that the bod abuses their position3 just how much did dato nazmi makes as the chairman. Some say abt 40 thousand as the non exec chairman? Syed zainal is just too soft to be the ceo of a big company like proton4 lets get someone who fits to be a leader to helm proton

DRB's group director auto div (cum CEO EON) has quit suddenly in mid-Feb after serving over 25 yrs.No announcement/confirmation by DRB but his name & pic have been removed from their corp website.Three others (COO EON, MD Suzuki Msia and GM Suzuki Msia) have since followed suit and more could be otw out.DRB's frosty relationship with Suzuki is evident as both Khamil & Luqman were MIA at recent launch of Kizashi.